Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Walter White Wednesday 5

Shhhh! The silent
edition.

Usually, television and film are all about the “tell” and
not so much about the “show.”
Showing without explanation
requires the audience to focus on the scene and (heaven forbid!) figure things
out independently. Gilligan and company
understand that - it's one of the many elements that make Breaking Bad a show you have to watch as
opposed to one that you simply turn on while you putter about the house.

This week, I want to talk about not talking. Our
everyday lives tend to be noisy, filled with street noise, the buzz of copier
machines, the “ding!” to alert us that a tweet or e-mail has arrived,
ringtones, and of course human conversation. However,
studies show that the amount of emotional content we pick up nonverbally
(through expression, tone of voice, posture, etc.) to be as high as 90%. If you’ve ever been involved in some minor escapade
or another and been caught (say, by your mom or a teacher), you probably had a
moment of thinking, “Uh-oh. It’s that
look.” You’re in trouble and you can
probably calculate fairly closely just how much trouble you’re in. That is the essence of nonverbal
communication.

Just three examples to illustrate. I’ll try to stay spoiler-free, but know the
first two come from Season 3 and the last one is from the first episode of Season
4. If you haven’t watched to that point,
just stop now, okay?

SKYLER from the very end of Season 3, Episode 3 (“I.F.T.”). Skyler has taken a desperate road in her
effort to get Walt to leave the house.
Walt is in fine fettle, trusting that his efforts to manipulate the
situation are causing things to break his way – she cares too much about the
family to cause a scene in front of their son and his friend, whom Walt has
cannily invited to stay for dinner. (“Look
honey, I made pot roast instead of meth!”)
Just watch her as Walt prattles on.
There’s a monologue of frustration, disgust, and revenge in her face here, which gives her line that much more power when she delivers it. And now it's time for salad!

THE COUSINS from pretty much any episode in the first half
of Season 3. Both are trained and ruthless
killers and neither of them talk much.
In fact, it’s Episode 6 (“Sunset”) before we hear a word from either of
them. Silence can make a scene heavy
with meaning and the meaning is often threatening or menacing. Think of seeing people meet each other at an
airport – the ones who are happy squeal, stretch out their arms, and dash
towards each other. The ones who just
glumly stare at each other – well, that car is going to host a different
conversation on the way home. From the
cold open of the first episode of Season 3 (“No Mas” [which was directed by
Bryan Cranston who plays Walter White]), something very, very creepy is going on
here – and we don’t need dialogue to tell us that.

GUS from Season 4, Episode 1 (“Box Cutter”). To be fair, I could’ve picked nearly any
scene with Gus. I find the casting of
Giancarlo Esposito in this role to be downright inspired – he can do so much by
staying so very, very still. Gus is a
very dangerous man wearing a very pleasant face and that fools many people who
interact with him. (I doubt his Los
Pollos managers think of him as a particularly harsh boss, although he is very meticulous
about how he wants even minor tasks done, for example.) To borrow an old phrase, he’s a wolf in sheep’s
clothing. And at the end of this
episode, he doesn’t have to say a word to get his point across. Also note the difference in Walt and Jesse’s
reactions to what Gus does – it says a lot about the changing relationship
between all three characters.

There's much more - Hector Salamanca's "bell of doom" comes to mind, which communicates so muchwithout words - but it's a start!

Yes, trust me - I know that the Breaking Bad finale was last night - fear not, thoughts on that are coming for "Walter White Wednesday...

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K. Dale Koontz

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K. Dale Koontz may have watched too much television as a child. She learned to count via Sesame Street and first learned that genres could cross-pollinate through M*A*S*H. When she discovered Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the die was cast. In 2008, McFarland published her book Faith and Choice in the Work of Joss Whedon which focused on themes such as redemption, choice, and consequences in Whedon's work up to that point. (She's fairly sure Volume 2 could be written to include Dr. Horrible, Dollhouse, and The Avengers.) She is a founding member of the Whedon Studies Association (a great group of people, but don't mention Twilight. Just sayin'). She has presented original work on the Rossum Corporation in Dollhouse, Kitty Pryde, and Japanese anime. In 2014, she and co-author Ensley F. Guffey worked with ECW Press to publish the critically-acclaimed Wanna Cook? The Complete, Unofficial Companion to Breaking Bad. Her most recent project was to team again with Ensley and ECW to publish A Dream Given Form, which is the only guide to all the canonical works in the Babylon 5 universe. That book is currently available for preorder and will be released in September of 2017. Dale is available for speaking engagements and only occasionally uses puppets in her presentations.

What?

I have long been interested in storytelling - how we do it, why we do it, and what happens when we mix things up. This interest might be the result of being born and raised in the American South, a region that has long celebrated the involved story over the quick answer. Television - the good stuff, anyway - does this brilliantly. Far from being film's red-headed tacky cousin, good TV lets characters and relationships build slowly and often mixes up genres, so horror is next door to humor and fantasy rubs shoulders with procedurals. This blog focuses on both the "good stuff" being broadcast that catches my fancy (with a special emphasis on Babylon 5, since that's the book that's in the process of being written right now) as well as film. The films are usually new releases being watched for TV19's weekly Meet Me at the Movies, although I reserve the right to veer off into classics and under-appreciated gems as well. Older posts cover what my introduction to film class was up to - currently, I'm not teaching that course, but who knows what the future may hold.